The Phantom Podcast
Summary A ten part miniseries about the 1999 George Lucas film, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The miniseries ostensibly serves to investigate a single central question: "What is this movie about?" History The podcast was first dreamed up by #TheTwoFriends, originally inspired by Griffin Newman's tweets throughout 2014 about the Star Wars character, Watto (for example, Watto Fever) and David Sims' tweets about chance cubes. Following a tweet exchange in which Griffin and David tried to outdo each other by naming as many obscure characters as they could from the movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, they came up with an idea for a freewheeling comedic podcast they could host together. In the initial concept, the show would focus on a single character from that movie each week and talk about that one character for a full hour or more. With the sheer number of characters that appear in the movie, many of which are not even named on-screen, they thought this concept alone could sustain the show for dozens and dozens of episodes. Using connections with friends and especially at the Chris Gethard Show where Griffin and David had each gained podcast hosting experience on "Talkin' TCGS" and "TCGS After Party," Griffin and David pitched their podcast idea to UCB Comedy as a show that they could launch on the burgeoning UCB Comedy podcast platform. In a back and forth email exchange with two decision-makers at the UCB, Griffin and David were gradually convinced to temper some of the insanity inherent in their show concept. Eventually the show went forward as "Griffin and David Present," a ten part miniseries, in which each episode could explore a different plot concept, set piece, or major character spotlight. Griffin felt the need to hook up with a producer who could take care of recording and logistics -- and let's be honest, control their fanciful flights of craziness a bit -- so they turned to a producer they'd each worked with before, Ben Hosley. He helped to sell the concept to his boss at UCB, as well as further refine the show's concept, framing the show's central conceit as something of a parody of the podcast sensation "Serial." The hook for "Griffin and David Present" could therefore be a mystery investigation into the movie, revolving around a central question: "What is this movie about?" As part of this investigation, and to help keep their perspective clear, the hosts decided to adopt the premise that they had never seen or even heard of any other Star Wars movies or works of any kind. The first episode was recorded in a closet-sized space on the ninth floor of the UCB facilities in New York City. Ben has said that as early as episode two, he could see that the show had a certain something that looked like it was going to work - and the rest is history. This miniseries was the first miniseries of the podcast. It was followed by the Attack Of The Podcast miniseries. Episodes Category:Phantom Podcast Category:Miniseries Summary __NOEDITSECTION__